Managers Who Coach Ask Questions That Enlighten

"It seems
the best coaches may have a toolkit of great open-ended questions. . .Do you
have a list of favorites that always seem to produce those "aha"
moments, or is it always situational?"

Well, for sure it's situational. At the same time, there are some useful questions to have in your toolkit because each situation has predictable elements.

We're going to post a list as a free resource at steveroesler.com shortly. In the meantime, I hope these will provide some guidance for managers who may feel "stumped" at times.

Note: It's important to take some of the pressure off by remembering that coaching is really about effective conversations; questions are the foundation for bringing about the "Aha!" And, they help focus the responsibility for learning in the right place.

Situations and Questions

Getting Started

What’s happened since our last meeting ?

Tell me a little of what’s going on right now.

What's important for you to focus on today?

Exploring Issues

How is that related to your key goals?

What does ______really mean to you?

Tell me a little more?

What do you think explains that?

What is your gut feeling about this?

Identifying What Is Most Important

What is most significant for you in all of this?

Exactly why is this a problem?

Could that (issue) be a symptom rather than a cause?

When You Need to Re-Focus

Why is that important?

Is this where you want to invest your energy?

May I offer an observation?

When You Sense the Readiness for Action

What, specifically, do you want to have happen?

How can I help?

How will you know you've been successful?

There are more situations and more questions, but this will hopefully help managers see the pattern within the questioning nature of coaching. It really can feel genuinely uncomfortable at the outset. After all, managers are lauded for their direction and decisiveness. In this case, your role changes so your behavior will change as well.

We'll work to get the expanded set of questions up on the site this week. In the meantime, I know we have a number of experienced coaches who take time to add to the discussion here. Check into the comment section; I'm sure you'll see some terrific suggestions.

Steve: McCarthy couldn't be more spot on. A major piece of my work is teaching people how to ask questions. Take for example, the sterotypical business of managing by wandering around, here are four: What's keeping you up at nights? What's most exciting for you right now? What are you working on? Where do you see we can improve?

One of my posts on questioning gets at an even broader rationale for asking questions: http://bit.ly/S2U3N

Another option to "tell me more" is the question: What else? I find that when coaching to assist with a specific problem, using "what else?" a few times engages the brain to a deeper level and potential options for resolving the problem are uncovered.

I was in a recent interview for an upper management position, I was presented a question I had not pondered yet......
You have 3 workers, worker A is performing above average, worker B is performing at average, and worker C is below average. Who should you devote most of your time to developing, and why?....
I feel the answer is based on the managers methods, and decision making, is there a better answer?